Boom wins Britain TT, takes GC lead after stage 5

Former world cyclocross champion Lars Boom wins stage 5 at the Tour of Britain Thursday and moves into the overall race lead.

Former world cyclocross champion Lars Boom won stage 5 at the Tour of Britain Thursday and moved into the overall race lead.

The Dutchman rode the 16.2km test in 19:02.5. His LottoNL-Jumbo teammate Victor Campenaerts was second, six seconds back. Vasil Kiryienka (Sky), the 2015 world time trial champion, was third, another second slower.

“I know, I always go out hard,” said Boom. “So I knew already in my mind that if it’s headwind in the last few kilometers I’m going to drop some seconds, but in the end I could keep it on 45, 48 [kph], so it was quite OK and my team director was telling me that at one kilometer out I was still 10 seconds faster, so I knew it was OK.

“The week before we came to Britain I had some problems with the stomach and so I was looking a little bit funny for the shape, but the feeling now was pretty good on the TT bike.

“There’s a really strong field here, that’s why I’m also really pleased with the win. We have to make a plan for the next few days. We need to see because it can be difficult with only six riders in the team, so it makes the racing also a little bit more difficult, but that’s quite nice about this race. And 20 seconds is not much so we have to look … I don’t know yet.”

The GC standings mirror the time trial results with Campanaerts second and Kiryienka third. Three stages remain in the eight-day British race.

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